Tuesday, June 19, 2012

who wants a spankin'?

Before we had children, my hubby and I talked about if we would be spankin' parents or not. Now both of us grew up in families where a spankin' wasn't uncommon or undeserved. My mother, bless her Asian lil heart, ruled with iron pincher's. That's right, she was a pincher. I am not sure if you have felt the wrath of an angry Korean mother and her pincher's. Its enough to make you sweat, and bring you to your knees. I was actually the pinch and twist that was the real killer. Try it on your mate one day....you will see.

Anyways, I digress. Rob and I came to the decision that we had no real stance on it. That some behaviors probably warrant a swat, but what those behaviors were, we didn't really know. Which brings me to the crux of my story. Max has been into biting lately. I know this is a toddler thing, and I am suppose to redirect it. But he's too savvy for that game. Today as I was cleaning some toys, Max climbed on my back and started lightly biting me. I was stern in my tone and pulled him off and said, "no bite". As if I said nothing at all, he was gleefully climbed back on my back, biting away. "NO BITE", I yelled and pulled him off me and gave him a swat on his butt. All noise stopped. And for a moment I thought he was going to brush it off and go back to playing. Then all of a sudden he looked up at me with the saddest eyes, and bursted into tears. Crocodile tears. Huge, over sized tear drops fell from his eyes. It instantly broke my heart. He even put his head down and rested it on the couch. As I sat down next to him rubbing his back, I started explaining my actions. Why we don't bite mamas and how it hurts. I swear it did hurt me more than it hurt him.

Who knows if this made any impact on him or his biting, or if he will be explaining this event to his future psychologist, I can't say. I can say that I am not sure if the swat or spankings will be making an appearance again, but I can say he is damn lucky I am not a pincher. Damn lucky!